


A Cat After The Marriage

by LadyBrooke



Category: The Cat Who Became a Queen (Indian folk tale)
Genre: F/M, Identity Swap, Plotting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-11
Updated: 2020-05-11
Packaged: 2021-03-02 17:21:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,090
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24120505
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyBrooke/pseuds/LadyBrooke
Summary: The Prince cannot believe the story, or their luck, until the night the cat perches at the end of their bed.
Relationships: The Prince (The Cat Who Became a Queen)/OFC
Comments: 5
Kudos: 8
Collections: Once Upon a Fic 2020





	A Cat After The Marriage

**Author's Note:**

  * For [betony](https://archiveofourown.org/users/betony/gifts).



_ Send the cat to these lands after our marriage, and I shall find a woman who can be passed off as your daughter, provided no one speaks the truth.  _

The Prince looked at the letter and considered adding more. He could do so, but the longer the letter, the larger the risk someone would think it curious and read it. 

Instead he signed his name at the bottom and sealed it to send back to the women who had told him the entire story. If only they had some other way to speak, he would send more word of his plan, but for now this would have to suffice. 

And what a story - what luck, really, even if he had given his word to not speak their secrets to anyone, which would make this more difficult. But his lover would discover the truth soon enough, he was sure. 

The Prince had been dreading this marriage, before the letter had arrived. How could he not have dreaded it, when his father and mother insisted he must marry well and as befitted a prince, and his love was so hidden in the shadows by her station that none would recognize her now if she disappeared? Though it turned out that such secrecy was actually to be their only hope, for now, so long as she agreed, they could pass her off as the Princess he was due to marry. That would make all of this plotting and secrecy worth the trouble it had caused over the years. 

The door creaked open in the corner, drawing his attention from his thoughts to his love. 

“We shall have a cat after we marry,” the Prince said, as she entered the room to clean. 

She looked up, raising an eyebrow. “You are to wed the Princess who has been sent for, there is no we.” 

“Nay! I cannot tell you the reason, but you alone shall clean these rooms, and on the day I tell you, you must dress yourself in the clothes left for the Princess and appear as her before all who I know.” This, the Prince concluded, was entirely within the bounds of his promise. 

His lover only raised an eyebrow, but eventually nodded, drawing a smile from the Prince. “I shall not kiss you again before then, as you have told me you shall not kiss a man promised to another,” he said. “But I will only ask you to consider carefully what you have seen.”

There, that would be enough, he thought. 

If the Prince had feared his plan would be discovered, he was careful to not allow a hint onto his face as the cat was brought into the palace and then to his rooms. If they were discovered now, all of his plans would be ruined. 

But no one remarked upon it, even though the bride had not been publicly revealed at any point in the wedding or afterwards. It was, he remarked to himself and the cat that night, as though fortune itself had smiled upon him. 

And indeed, it had, he concluded several weeks later as his love flew back into his rooms.

“There is no one but a cat in these rooms,” she said, walking up and pointing at the cat. “I have been cleaning for weeks, and I thought the Princess was merely elsewhere, but I heard rumors today that she has not left here since your marriage.”

“I told you we would have a cat upon our marriage.” He grinned then, brief but as bright as the sun, and reached a hand towards her. 

She stepped back. “If the girl’s father finds out she is gone-”

“The King,” he interrupted, “has never seen his daughter. Indeed, if it was not for the sheer ridiculousness of the idea, one could almost wonder if there was in fact no Princess, for she has never been seen by any except the King’s wives. But such just and honorable women as they would never do such as that, no matter what words he spoke while wishing for a child.”

The look on his lover’s face was far more solemn than his own, he thought. 

She did not smile, but merely took a breath. “Of course such just and fair women would not conceal the truth from their husband. But tell me, what role am I to play in this?”

“I have been bidden to care for the Princess’ cat after my marriage to a woman as fair as the stars. My mother seeks to see the Princess this afternoon, and I would bid you to dress in the Princess’ dress so that she will not be distressed to find the Princess missing.” He paused for a moment, until she nodded. “Of course, if you do so there is no telling how long such will be needed for. It is unlikely the Princess will return at any point in the future.”

She nodded, a small smile finally breaking through. “I shall do as you have bidden me, my Prince, and play the role as well as may be asked of me.”

“Thank you, my love,” he said. He tried to move closer, and she laughed and let me spin her once through the room, before pulling back again. 

“No more, my Prince, for I must return once more to my chores.” 

“Only the ones in this room. I shall call for another servant, who shall take over the rest forever more.” He squeezed her hands once, twice, and then released them. “Come, quickly, before my mother returns.” 

She turned, hurriedly letting her hair down as she quickly slipped into such clothes as she had never let the Prince dress her in before. 

She merely smiled, and kissed him once when she had finished dressing. The Prince kissed her in return, as the cat watched. 

When the Prince’s mother returned some time later, looking for the source of the cries she had heard from the cat that morning, all memories of the Prince’s former servant had already slipped from his mother’s mind, for she had avoided the Prince’s parents for years. When the door was opened, and a woman stepped out from the room, all there remarked upon how the Princess was as beautiful as could be expected, and it was quite fortunate that she finally had left her isolation behind. 

And so they lived happily ever after, including the cat curled at the foot of the bed, who the Prince and Princess accounted the most helpful of animals.


End file.
